Fur-effect fabric and method of making same



Dec. 4, 1962 A, F. MCNALLY ETAL 3,066,380

FUR-EFFECT FABRIC AND METHOD OF MAKING SAME A TTORNEYS.

United States PatentOfifice 3,066,380 Patented Dec. 4, 1962 3,066,380 FUR-EFFECT FABRIC AND METHOD OF MAKING SAME Arthur F. McNally, Larchmont, N.Y., and William L.

White, Wynnewood, Pa., assignors to Collins & Alkman Corporation, New York, N.Y., a corporation of Delaware Filed Oct. 13, 1958, Ser. No. 766,972 6 Claims. (Cl. 28-72) This invention relates to fur-effect fabrics made from textile yarns, and more particularly to fabrics which simulate natural tors and to a method for making such fabrics. Fabrics have been heretofore produced having a soft furry pile surface, which fabrics may be considered a substitute for natural furs. Such fabrics, however, have failed to simulate many natural furs, since they have normally provided only one face surface of substantially equal length pile fibers. It is the primary object of this invention to provide a woven fur-effect fabric from textile yarns which closely simulates natural furs by having a furry under-coating of fine fibers and coarser fibers extending beyond the under-coating in the manner of the beard hairs of a natural fur.

Many diificulties have been encountered in attempting to provide simulated beard hairs in a fur-effect fabric. In many natural furs there are substantially two face surface levels. One is the lower level of the furry undercoat hairs and the other is the outer or upper level of the extended beard hairs. Great difficulty has been encountered in endeavoring to provide these two levels in fur-effect fabrics due to the impossibility of shearing the undercoat yarns to form one level without at the same time cutting the simulated beard hairs to the same length. It is accordingly a principal object of the present invention to provide a method of producing two or more substantially clearly defined levels of pile yarns in a furelfect fabric.

Some fur-effect fabrics having both the fine underbody and the high extending beard hairs have been produced by knitting, whereby a small card is attached to the knitting machine and fibers of different fineness and length are carded and engaged by the knitting needles and knitted into the backing yarns as the pile. This method produces essentially the beard hair effect of furs in this fabric. However, the inherent characteristics of a knitted fabric are such that these fibers are not adequately anchored in the backing and the fabric therefore has a very pronounced tendency to shed in normal wear. Principally, theydo not have the fabric stability of a Woven pile fabric.

Accordingly,'it is another object of this invention to providea woven fur-effect fabric and amethod of making such a fabric. Y

The above objects and others, which will be apparent from the following description, are achieved by weaving a pile fabric in which the pile yarns are made up of shrinkable and non-shrinkable materials in such a way that the non-shrinkable material appears in the ultimate fur-effect fabric as beard hairs and the shrinkable mate rials corresponding to underpelt fur. The present invention is an improvement over the methods and fabrics disclosed in our pending patent application for Fur-effect Fabrics and Method of Making Same, Serial No. 607,777 filed September 4, 1956, now Patent No. 2,857,652 which discloses certain applications of shrinkable and nonshrinkable yarns in a fur-effect fabric.

The present invention is also an improvement over the methods and fabrics disclosed in our pending patent application for Fur-effect Fabrics and Method of Making Same, Serial No. 737,097, filed May 22, 1958, now Patent No. 3,013,325 which discloses a method of making fur-effect fabrics wherein the pile yarns are formed by twisting or wrapping non-shrinkable filaments with high shrinkable yarns. In the present invention the beard hairs and the underpelt are produced from separate pile yarns which are woven together without prior twisting or plaiting.

Throughout this specification the terms non-shrinkable and highly shrinkable will be used to describe the various yarns and materials employed. It is to be understood that the use of the term non-shrinkable does not imply that there is no shrinkage whatever in the materials used but rather that there is inconsiderable shrinkage in comparison to the shrinkage characteristics of the' highly shrinkable materials.

In describing the preferred embodiment of the inven tion illustrated in the drawing, specific terminology will be resorted to for the sake of clarity. However, it is not the intention to be limited to the specific terms so selected.

The invention is illustrated in the drawings of which;

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic view showing the weaving of pile yarns in the formation of a fabric made according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a partial schematic view showing selected reed dents of the loom in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic view similar to FIG. 1 of a modified form of the invention; I

FIG. 4 is a partial schematic view of selected reed dents of the loom in FIG. 3.; l

FIG. 5 is a further partial schematic view of selected reed dents of the loom in FIG. 3 showing a further modification of the invention; j FIG. 6 is a side elevational View in section showinga cut pile fabric made according to the invention being treated in a finishing operation to open the .pile yarns; FIG. 7 is a plan view of a finished fabric made accord ing to the invention;

FIG. 8 is a side elevational view of the fabric of FIG. '7 along the line VIII-VIII.

FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a loom wherein pile yarns are delivered from beam 10 over roll 11 to heddle eyes 12-17. The yarns 18-29 are interwoven with picks and backing yarns to form double woven fabric 30 at reed 31. The double woven fabric. 30 is cut by cutter 32 and taken off on fabric rolls I33-34. It is to be understood that the drawing of FIG. 1 does not show the weft yarns or the backing yarns which are inter.- woven in accordance with known methods but illustrates only the novel disposition of the pile yarns. In the example shown in FIG. 1 the pile yarns are placed on the beam 10 as double yarns which are not twisted together. Taking, for example, yarns 18 and 19, yarn 18 is a non,- shrinkable yarn which will ultimately appear in the finished fabric as a beard hair simulating yarn. Yarn 19 which is wound on beam 10 and woven together with yarn 18, is a highly shrinkable yarn which will appear in the underpelt simulating portion of the finished fabric. Yarns 18 and 19, weaving as a single end. in the loom, pass through the same heddle eye 12 and reed 31.)As shown in FIG. 2, yarns 18 and 19 pass through the same dent 35 in reed 31. In the particular weave shown, yarns 20, 21 and 22, 23 comprise the remaining pile ends in reed dent 35. Backing yarns 36 and 37 are also illustrated schematically in the reed dents.

An alternate method of the invention is illustrated in FIG. 3. There the highly shrinkable yarn is delivered from beam 58 and the non-shrinkable yarn from separate beam 51. The highly shrinkable yarn is fed from beam 50 to each of the heddle eyes 53, 55, 57, 59, 61 and 63. The non-shrinkable yarn is fed from beam 51 to each of the heddle eyes 52, 54, 56, 58, 60 and 62. The heddle eyes are arranged in pairs in the harness as illustrated so that each of the shrinkable yarns is woven with a companion non-shrinkable yarn as a single end in the loom. The non-shrinkable yarns 6469 are shown as double yarns thus providing two non-shrinkable yarns for each highly shrinkable yarn 70 75,. The pile yarns are interwoven with backing and weft yarns not shown to form the double woven fabric 76 at reed 77. Fabric 76 is cut at cutter 87 and removed to rolls 78 and 79. A schematic view of two reed dents of reed 77 is shown in FIG. 4. By way of example, highly shrinkable yarn 70 together with non-shrinkable yarn 64 weave as a single group of yarns, to form a single tuft in the woven fabric.

FIG. 5 illustrates one of the variations that may be made in the. method illustrated in FIG. 3. Reed 80, coming reed dents 81-8 6, contains varying ratios of nonshr nkable yarns to shrinkable yarns. Thus in reed dents .81 and 86 the ratio in each end is one shrinkable yarn to one non-shrinkable yarn. In reed dents 82 and 85 the ratio, is one shrinkable yarn to two non-shrinkable yarns and in reed dents 83 and 84, the ratio is one shrinkable yarn to three, nonshrinkable yarns. The object of varying the ratio of non-shrinkable yarns to shrinkable yarns is to provide variation in the proportion of beard hairs in the finished fur-effect fabric in order to simulate natural furs. It is also to be. understood, as pointed out in our 'cope nding patent applications, that various suitable types and kinds of highly shrinkable yarns may be employed either as single orplied yarns or yarns blended of various materials so long as they are shrinkable to produce substantially uniform distinct pile levels in the finished fabric. Likewise the non-shrinkable yarns may be of any suitable textile material and if in conjunction with, the nonshrinkable yarns two or more highly shrinkable yarns or fibers are used which vary in shrinkability between themselves then more than two distinct predetermined pile levels can be produced. Non-shrinkable synthetic monofilaments have been found to be particularly suitable for this purpose but of course multifilaments may also be used.

FIG. 6 illustrates the opening up of the cut pile yarns as part of the finishing operation. Cut pile fabric 100 is fed to a, tiger or carding roll 101. The pile yarns 102, corresponding to those produced by the process of FIG. 1, are opened up to separate the elements thereof prior to shrinking. Upon subjecting the fabric 100 to a shrinking treatment, as spelled out more fully in our copending patent applications, the highly shrinkable yarns are shrunk, forming a substantially uniform distinct pile level as illustrated in FIG. 8. There the shrinkable yarns 200 simulate the underpelt of natural furs. The non-shrinkable yarrisZtll form an upper pile level simulating the beard hairs of natural furs. When more than two distinct predetermined pile levels are desired, pile yarns having more than two different degrees of shrinkability are employed. Thespeciiic fabric illustrated in FIGS. 7 and 8 corresponds generally to the fabric produced by the method illustrated in PK}. 3 employing the varying ratio of shrinkable yarns t non-shrinkable, yarns shown in FIG. 5. Thus a heavy concentration of beard hairs is provided where desired. The result as shown in FIG. 7 is a fur-effect fabric which effectively simulates the normal pelt divisions of a natural fur garment.

One of the principal advantages of the invention, in

achieving the objects set forth above, is that the pile forming shrinkable and non-shrinkable yarns are separate at all times from their tips to the backing material. This simplifies the finishing operations and enhances the fursimulating appearance of the fabric.

While in accordance with the provisions of the statutes, we have illustrated. and described the best form of embodimcnt of our invention now known to us it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that changes may be made in the form described without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, as set forth in the appended claims, and that in some cases certain features of our invention may be used to advantage without a corresponding use of other features.

What we claim is:

1. A method of making a fur effect fabric comprising weaving pile yarns of shrinkable material only and separate pile yarns of non-shrinkable material only with backing yarns and weft yarns to form a woven pile fabric in which every pile tuft is a composite tuft containing at least one yarn of shrinkable material and at least one yarn of non-shrinkable material, cutting the pile yarns to form a substantially uniform cut pile surface, opening the cut pile yarns and shrinking the shrinkable yarns to form a plurality of substantially uniform pile surfaces and then subjecting the pile yarns to a fur-finishing operation toproduce a furry appearance in the pile.

2. The fabric made according to the method of claim 1.

3. A method of making a fur effect fabric comprising arranging shrinkable pile yarns and separate non-shrinkable pile yarns in groups on the beam of a loom, each of said groups having at least one shrinkable yarn and at least one non-shrinkable yarn, weaving saidgroups of pile. yarns with backing yarns and weft yarns to form a Woven pile fabric, cutting the pile yarns to form a substantially uniform cut pile surface, opening the cut pile yarns and shrinking the shrinkable yarns to form a. plurality of substantially uniform pile surfaces and then subjecting the pile yarns to afar-finishing operation to produce a furry appearance in the pile. V

4. The fabric made according to the method of claim 3.

5. The method of claim 3 further characterized by the fact that pile yarns are grouped between predetermined spaced-apart points in the loom to form predetermined spaced-apart openings in the pile of the fabric, said spacedapart points corresponding substantially to the width of a natural fur pelt and the number of non-shrinkable yarns in each of the groups of pile yarns being varied in the following manner: a, small number of said yarns per group in the pile ends nearest said spaced-apart points and a large number of said yarns per group in the pile ends remote from said spaced-apart points.

6. The fabric made according to the method of claim 5.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,319,073 McElhaney May 11, 1943 2,544,338 Mackay et a1. Mar. 6', 1951 2,815,558 Bartovics et al Dec. 10, 1957 2,857,652 McNally et al. Oct. 28, 1958 2,866,255 Keen Dec. 30, 1958 2,875,504 White Mar. 3, 1959 2,892,471 Bloch et a1, June 30, 1959 

